Aladdin that frequents this forum knows a lot about this subject - i agree with you 100% -

I hope Aladdin will share his knowledge on this. My now 32 year old was arrested and charged with 6 felony counts of soliciting a minor when he was on an internet chat room (where no one under 18 is meant to be on) it turned out that the woman he was chatting with turned out to be a detective posing as a 14 yr, old girl, he did however go to meet "her" and was met by the police and arrested. He is in prison as a level 3 SO , worst of level of SO is so unfair, there was never a real person - minor. It is because of past arrests,which never had anything to do with a sex crime and never in prison before did he get this and he will have to register for life as a level 3 SO. What can be done about this entrapment? He is not a danger or threat to anyone. These laws have to change what can we as a group do to bring awareness and change? Thank You

Law enforcement running these stings to catch people who are talking to "IMAGINARY" teens are not doing a good job. If I could use one word to describe these stings, that word would be deplorable.

What they are doing is running these investigations that are very close to entrapment so that their money "gravy train" of federal grants to fight cyber crime will continue. They are sitting on their fat asses behind a computer screen chasing people on the internet while the real crime on the streets goes unabated.

These agencies receive thousands upon thousands of dollars each year from the federal government in the form of federal grants to fight crime over the internet. Of course they want to keep this little scheme of theirs going. If the funds ever dried up, they could not longer operate their little shell game and they would have to get out into the cold of winter or the heat of summer to actually work.

I realize that there are a lot of true predators on the internet trolling for underage people, but this man is not one of them and the police damn well know it. But they have to keep their arrests up to insure the money continues to flow into their coffers.

You can bet if the federal money dried up, the stings would come to a halt.

One only has to look at what Sheriff Grady Judd in south Florida is doing to understand much of these investigations are fueled by economics. This character is practically running a criminal enterprise in Florida with the tactics he uses to snare "predators." The overwhelming majority of these arrests are not predators.

To add insult to injury, the initial ad---the "bait"---law enforcement uses to reel these guys in are usually posted in the ADULT section----adult section, meaning over 18 years of age---of a place like Craigslist. These guys are not looking for minors; if they were, they would not be looking for them on places like Craigslist IN THE ADULT SECTION. They would find some place where underage children gather rather than the adult-only section of the internet. There are not supposed to be any underage people in the adult sections of these places where they advertise.

To make things even more ridiculous, there is no "victim" but merely a policeman pretending to be an underage person. So the defendant has never actually contacted a minor at all.

And then, once law enforcement zeros in on a particular person, they hound him to death until he agrees to meet the "victim" somewhere.

Then, as in the story, after they get the guy all worked up---which is human nature---they reveal that they are something like 14 years old, a minor. By that time, the guy at least wants to see who he has been talking to.

The guy begins thinking he is talking to an adult. The fact that law enforcement waits for such a long period of time to mention that "I am only 14 years old" just solidifies the fact that these stings are mostly for show.

Then the Sheriff holds a press conference telling how many were arrested and how they are making things safer for your children on the internet. The public laps it up and more funds are headed for the law enforcement agencies for the next fiscal period. Wash, rinse, and repeat. This seems to be the American way these days.

Don't get me started on these internet solicitation stings. It will ruin my entire day.

rewdiazepam

PS Yes, Aladdin is much more knowledgeable on these stings than I am, but I know the basics. Hopefully, he will come along and make a comment.

the ones that have been shown to be done in ADULT areas or sites and then all of the sudden have the bait and switch tactics are some of the ones that have been thrown out. I also researched a little bit about FL law - in FL to be entrapment one of the elements that must be present when law enforcement "invents or creates" a crime is that it can not be in a place that that crime would not be expected. In other words, when female officers pose as prostitutes on "prostitutes row" and a suspect goes there for a prostitute that is not entrapment - but if a female cop poses as a prostitute at say Disney Land (where you would not expect to find a prostitute) that would be entrapment. As far as I understand the same thing applies to the adult chats etc. If you go there and meet someone you have the expectation that they are an adult - when LE poses as an adult and then makes the switch that is entrapment. As in another article that was posted in the forum many times the suspects try to change their minds or they think the person they have been talking to is kidding. Anyway ...

Oh something else that Aladdin taught me is that there are (at least in FL) set rules the LE must follow when they conduct these stings - that is also how some of Shady Grady's arrests got thrown out

i think the reason they could do it is they told him she was 14 several times and he continues talking. i believe that is what hangs the guys who only talk to them on computer.

My son is in Arizona another terrible state whose main income seems to be to keep people in prison. If anyone knows about the Arizona entrapment laws I would be most appreciative, I know the attorney said that since my son stupidly and sadly confessed when arrested there was not much he could do but suggest he take the plea bargin which was 3.5 yrs in prison, double, yes double lifetime probation, having to wear a GPS, go to SO classes, etc. They give lifetime probation to insure when they do get out they are still paying for classes, etc...usually they violate them, as they make a lot more money when incarcerated.

My son is praying that Oregon will accept him when he is released in July 2016. He is taking a paralegal course in hopes that he will be able to help others who find themselves caught in this insidious web of the criminal injustice system. Thank you for all the information and sharing on this topic.

Unfortunately I'm really busy this morning so I don't have a lot of time to write a novel at the moment :)

I don't know any specifics about Arizona entrapment law but there is some Arizona related activity on http://floridascandal.com so join and make a post about being in Arizona and that you'd like to talk with the other Arizona people going through the same thing. As a group Florida Scandal has been pretty successful in raising awareness of what's really going on and the more people that get together the easier it will be to do the same in another state.An example of what can be done:

http://tinyurl.com/nvgrvcq

Since your son is post conviction it will be much more difficult but it's not impossible to do something. Doing something post conviction is why I'm so busy here lately.......

Only in Florduh! Wow that is some messed up S!

It's only Entrapment, if a Judge rules that is. Reality has no place in a courtroom.

What happened with my son was that he met someone on an adult dating site. That person then asked him to download a different app so they could chat—an app rated 17+.

The app was one of those that doesn't keep any records and supposedly erases everything after a few minutes. My son had never used it until the "woman" on the other end asked him to set up an account and meet her there. It was only after they were chatting on this app that she started pretending to be a high school freshman instead of a college student.

And of course the only transcript available is those moments the police captured as screen shots. No way for my son to check them either for accuracy or completeness.

True Hank!

Caught - does he have chat captures of the LE (which we now know was LE) asking him to download this erasing app? I think that shows intention on the part of the LE to avoid record of the conversations. To me that is a big deal! I bet they use that tactic all the time - To me the lack of the transcript can work in your favor - if there is no proof that it was ever communicated to him that this was an underage girl then where is the crime? And if LE has transcripts from this erasable app but your son does not that shows that they purposely got him to use that knowing that they were prepared to keep the transcripts while he was not! I actually think that is very suspicious actions on the LE part.

Thank You Sandra for bringing this up and to everyone sharing.

Aladdin, I understand you are busy, however I just wanted to ask you about what you mentioned about my son being post conviction being more difficult but not impossible to do anything about. He is bipolar and when not on meds and when having a manic episode, this is when he has done things that have landed him in jail, in 2013 was the first time he was arrested on a sex crime on an online chat room sting operation. When the attorney had a psych evaluation done and shared the bi-polar diagnosis with the prosecutor her reaction and comment was "What does that have to do with anything." and the judge dismissed it all together. This had everything to do with his being online when in a manic state. Do you think there is hope to do something about this even though he confessed, because he was manic and confessed under duress? Thank You again

My first instinct is yes. The psych eval should have at least been considered as a mitigating factor during sentencing if nothing else. The thing is I don't know hardly anything about Arizona court procedures or how to leverage that to your son's advantage. There are time limits on a lot of things so you're definitely in a situation where you need to talk to a local attorney that knows the local rules to figure out what all the options are. Most will do a free consultation and you can narrow the field by looking for one that specializes in post conviction work.